The application, filed last Thursday, seeks a $280,000 relief payment for three staff whom the NTEU allege are owed redundancy payments after "nearly 10 years on dodgy fixed-term contracts."

The firm representing the union, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, will argue that QUT should have paid the staff redundancies when their work was "no longer required" at the end of 2022.

NTEU Queensland secretary Michael McNally said the workers were on inappropriate fixed-term contracts.

"When they sought to have their roles converted to continuing positions, not only were they refused, they were told their academic roles didn’t exist anymore," the secretary said.

"It’s not just QUT. The abuse of fixed-term appointments is rife, right across the sector.

"This case shows how the use of fixed-term contracts undermines job security. You are never safe at the end of one contract if a university decides it wants to change your job title."

QUT refutes the allegations.

"We cannot provide details on this matter as it is subject to a claim before the courts," a spokesperson said in a statement to Campus Review.

"However, we reject the NTEU description of QUTs actions in relation to these individuals."

The final amendment to the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws saw fixed-term contract use limited, a rule that came into effect one day before the union announced the court filing against QUT.

However, Mr McNally said he believes the amendment won't do much to further protect academics and university staff from fixed-term contracts.

"An unintended consequence of the wording in this new change to the law is that it will probably not limit the use of fixed-term employment in higher education, as we saw it failed to do for casual academic staff," he said.

"The NTEU plans to campaign for change to ensure university fixed-term employees receive the same benefits as workers in other sectors."

Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers Giri Sivaraman said even though the contracts took place before the Fair Work amendments, they still violated the law.

"Unfortunately what the university failed to do is give these workers the dignity of being employed permanently," the lawyer said.

"The university breached the Fair Work Act by repeatedly offering these fixed-term contracts in contravention of the [enterprise and bargaining agreements].

"This case is about holding employers to account and making sure that workers get what is rightfully theirs."

Other amendments to the laws have taken place over the last 12 months, and include changes to flexible work arrangements, remuneration, enterprise bargaining agreements, and industrial action industry policies.

"What the WHO was doing was spreading misinformation," Professor Morawska told Campus Review.

"I said to myself, something has to be done because after all these years of studies, I knew it was airborne, but no one was interested in seeing this."

In the early stages of Covid, the world's top health agency believed the virus was transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth.

At the time, Professor Morawska had worked as a WHO advisory since 1998 and had decades of experience studying air quality.

She had previously worked on the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which struck Hong Kong in 2003 and led to 298 deaths.

"When SARS happened, little was known about how the particles from human respiratory activities are generated and what happens to them in the air," Professor Morawska said.

"That's when I decided to expand my research field and investigate particles from respiratory activities."

In efforts to alert the general public about the nature of Covid transmission Professor Morawska then led a team of 240 international experts who proved scientifically the disease was airborne.

Alongside 33 other academics she wrote a paper titled "It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)".

The paper, which took three months to write, would go on to change how the government and the global health community viewed the pandemic.

"It was so difficult just to get this key information out," she said.

"I wasn't thinking about my career then; all I wanted was changing this mindset of the national authorities, bring awareness to people and help lower the risk of infection transmission."

It was not until mid-2021 that WHO acknowledged Covid-19 could be spread via air and changed its recommendations.

According to Professor Morawska, by then several countries had already set wrong guidelines and missed vital opportunities to save people's lives.

For her work raising awareness around COVID-19's airborne spread, Professor Morawska was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.

More recently she won the Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australia's Academy of Science's highest distinction, for her contributions to the field throughout her career. 

"When there is recognition for my work, it's never just mine; it's always an achievement working with colleagues because this is an interdisciplinary area," Professor Morawska said.

"I wouldn't have been able to do even a fraction of this work by myself.

"But each time we are recognised, it motivates me to work harder and fulfil more dreams regarding what we can do in the future."

Professor Morawska said her passion for science began at a young age.

"What was the reason for this initial decision? I don't remember exactly," she said.

"My parents were educated; my mum was a chemist, and my father an electrical engineer. They would always provide reading materials, and we had a lot of discussions about science."

"That certainly helped me develop my interest."

Growing up in the small city of Przemyśl in southeastern Poland, Professor Morawska followed a traditional schooling path.

In 1982 she became a physicist after completing her doctorate in radon at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

From 1987 to 1991, she moved to Canada to become a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Atomic Energy Agency, where she developed her interest in studying air quality.

At the time, the now Professor was researching radon progeny and had an opportunity to use rare instruments to measure the size distribution and concentration of particles in the air.

One day, she had the idea to use the instruments in the streets of downtown Toronto and found surprising results which changed her entire career trajectory.

"I found out the concentration of these particles was extreme. There were hundreds of thousands of these particles, and this was mind-blowing; where are they coming from?," she said.

"I thought that relation must have been from the cars on the street, but there was absolutely nothing about this in the literature because the instrument was generally used only in laboratory studies."

Professor Morawska said this was the moment she knew she would pursue atmospheric sciences and work to fill a widening research gap.

In 1991, she flew to Australia for the first time and was appointed as senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology before being promoted to Professor in 2003.

Over the past two decades, she has established the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health Center at QUT in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

Professor Morawska continues to research indoor air quality standards and wishes to continue mentoring her PhD student.

"I enjoy seeing my students develop, they sometimes arrive without knowledge in the area and little background research experience, and seeing them blossom and come up with amazing things," she said.

"In the end, we share ideas and it's that close relationship of on working together which eventually come to fruition in terms of completion of the paper or discovering something some new.

"If there were no students or staff, by myself, there is only that much I could do in this very broad field."

On Thursday, hundreds of staff from Queensland University, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook and Central Queensland University will walk off the job.

This comes as the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) ramps up industrial action over 'dragging bargaining agreements with employers.'

“We're tired of the way university managements delay, stall, don't engage with our key claims and don't bargain properly until we start taking industrial action” NTEU Queensland Secretary Michael McNally told Campus Review.

The coordinated strike will take place simultaneously in different locations with JCU and CQU striking locally, while UQ, QUT and Griffith will join forces in a rally at King George Square in Brisbane. 

Additionally, union members from University of the Sunshine Coast, University of Southern Queensland and ACU are expected to join.

McNally said participating universities wished to make a statement to university management and draw attention to poor workplace conditions.

"People are always shocked when I tell them that if you work at a public university you are far more likely to be employed casually than if you work at Coles or Woolies," he said.

McNally said he believes university business models are built on 'cheap casual labour', leading to ‘easy’ wage theft and excessive workloads for staff.

“It is unreasonable for universities to continue to operate in this corporate manner where every decision is an economic decision, not an educational one where staff are the last considerations, not the first,” he said. 

The industrial action will support NTEU bargaining claims for a reduced workload, a pay increase with a focus on improved job security.

The NTEU believes universities could reduce casualization “if they wanted to," particularly given high cost-of-living and inflation.

McNally suggested Queensland universities follow the example of Western Sydney University, which moved 25 per cent of its casual workforce into permanent jobs earlier this year. 

“We want to see a significant number of staff converted to ongoing positions, we know that if they want, they can do it and they can afford it; the staff are there," he said.

Queensland University of Technology staff member Kyle will be joining the rally because he is “fed up with penny-pinching by unaccountable leaders at QUT”. 

“The last five years have led demonstrably to a degradation in conditions, experiences and outcomes for staff and students," he said.  

University of Queensland staff member Martin Webster said he “loves his job” but was “sick and tired of letting hard work become executives’ bonuses”.

“I can’t keep standing idly by while the university sector prioritises new managers and executives, while leaving operational staff like us to pick up the slack,” he said.

“We need to stop letting the university use our goodwill so they can buy buildings and investments.”

The project led by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Lauren Fell in association with national startup Lunaria One, and researchers from ANU, RMIT University, and Ben Gurion University in Israel will try to grow plants on the Moon to develop food, oxygen and medicine for future astronauts who will spend time on the ground. 

The mission named Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH-1) will be the first in a series of experiments by Lunaria One to research whether plants can grow and thrive on the lunar surface.

“We have an expert team of biologists, engineers and educators in our team as we will invite citizen scientists from around the world to participate in solving the unique challenges in this project,” Fell said.

The research team will be sending via the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet 2, a capsule containing selected seeds and ‘resurrections’ plants along with sensors, camera and water which will help researchers monitor the plants growth and compare it to a control experiment based on Earth. 

Growing plants in space has proven difficult as challenges occur around oxygen, light and gravity. 

Currently, researchers have been considering sending Australian native grass Tripogon loliiformis also known as Fiveminute Grass as it can endure harsh conditions and survive without water for months. 

The plant is also known for ‘resurrecting’ once watered again. 

“Even after losing more than 95 per cent of its relative water content, the dead-looking grass remains alive and pre-existing tissues flourish when provided with water,” QUT plant biologist Dr Brett Williams said.

“The seeds and resurrection plants can survive in a dehydrated dormant state and will be carried in a hermetically sealed chamber on the lunar lander and, we hope, germinate and reactivate upon watering.”

The types of plants sent on the ALEPH-1 mission will be selected based on how quickly they can germinate and their tolerance to extreme temperature variations that can be experienced in space.  

Upon landing, the research team will be expecting to have a plant growth within the first 72 hours.

In addition to growing plants on the Moon, researchers will also use the study findings to develop new ways to boost sustainable food production on Earth as more severe climate changes are expected. 

Project science advisor associate professor Caitlin Byrt from ANU said the mission is a “unique” opportunity to study plant propagation in harsh environments which will be critical for food security on Earth and in space.

"The extreme conditions that Earth is facing due to climate change present challenges for how we manage food security in the future,” Byrt said.

"This project is important for developing propagation systems relevant to challenges here on Earth. This includes the creation of controlled environments that enable communities to rapidly propagate plants after natural or climate related disasters.  

"If you can create a system for growing plants on the moon, then you can create a system for growing food in some of the most challenging environments on Earth," she said. 

The Lunaria One team includes scientists from Australia, Israel, South Africa and the US. 

According to QUT's Dr Michael Cowley, there is a willingness to bring Indigenous knowledges into our schools but it has had “slow start” in higher education. 

“We need to start including a chapter [about Indigenous astronomy] at the start of the textbooks, and indeed at a university level. It's an important part of history, one that we really shouldn't overlook,” Cowley told Campus Review.

“This knowledge can help fill in the gaps and give a better timeline of astronomy and astrophysics, if we can take advantage of that 60,000 year timeline that we have with indigenous astronomy, it can better inform our modern day science today.”

Cowley joined Campus Review to discuss the barriers to integrating First Nations knowledge into Western science, and how universities can work to address them.

A new QUT study 'Visibility and invisibility in the aged care sector: Visual representation in Australian news' analysed 13 articles from the release of the royal commission's report until after the government's response in May 2021.

Experts found that the pictures used alongside news coverage were "generic" and "underscored how isolated and marginalised this group is".

"20 per cent of the images in the aged care topic were stock photos and were often context-poor and not representative," says lead-author TJ Thompson.

"Generally as a society, we don't like to talk or think about tough things such as getting older, aged care and dying," co-author Evonne Miller says.

Campus Review spoke with lead author and senior lecturer with QUT’s School of Communication, TJ Thompson and co-author and Director at the QUT Design Lab, professor Evonne Miller about the role of journalism in representing older people.

Boase and his team from QuT have been given the green light to develop a new technology that stops emerging viruses from developing and spreading through human cells during future pandemics. 

The team hopes that by ‘attacking’ the envelope of the viruses, they'll be able to block viral particles from merging with the human’s cells and stop their ability to replicate.

“If we can do that, then your immune system will eventually catch up and then kick off the rest of the viruses on the outside of the cells,” Boase told Campus Review.

“What we're trying to do is reduce the amount of infection, reduce the infection chance and more, by targeting the virus rather than necessarily training the immune system.” 

According to the researcher, most viruses need to fuse with the human cell to be able to develop further and propagate. 

The team will try to use polymer and long chain molecules to target the viral envelope that usually merges with the cell and, in doing so, deactivate the viruses. 

“As long as the virus has an envelope we're hoping that our polymers will be effective against them,” Boase said. 

“We are looking at it on the molecular scale. How can we get these polymer molecules to do this deactivation of the viruses, and how does that work?"

According to Boase, this new technique could target any viruses dangerous to the human race as long as they have a ‘casing’.

“We're targeting the really specific strain areas, it won't just target Influenza, COVID, or Monkeypox. 

“It is an exciting new project. Nobody really looked at this with polymers, and I think there's a natural ability for them to be very effective in this area,” he added.

For as long as he can remember, Boase turned to science to find answers about how the world around him worked. 

It was through university summer research project schemes that he found his niche. By the time he graduated, he had already participated in multiple projects that each contributed to his career.

“The research scheme got me into nanoscience and polymers, and then it gave me the opportunity to participate in a nanomedicine focused project – it has just fascinated me ever since.”

Before venturing into viruses research, Boase had focused on nanomedicines for cancer and antibacterial coatings for infections. 

During the pandemic he rethought his career trajectory and developed the idea to use polymers and nanomedicine to target the viruses envelope. 

Funded by the US Department of Defense via a $US200,000 Discovery grant scheme, the team will have two years to investigate their hypothesis. 

It’s a blessing for Boase, who couldn’t have dreamed of getting that much funding while being in the early stages of his career. 

“All the department is interested in is completely new research ideas, you don't need a track record and you're not competing with people that have 20, 30 years’ worth of papers behind them.

“They're really just interested in getting new ideas back into the scientific literature that might benefit their personnel or their veterans,” Boase said. 

“Which means, this is a brand new area for us too.”

Over the long run, Boase hopes that the research will ‘revolutionise’ antiviral therapeutics goods and prevent future pandemics by helping people that are already affected or even prophylaxis in an area likely to be infected.

“We're hoping it will be like a rapid therapeutic that can be deployed directly and that it'll provide some relief early on when a new viral pandemic emerges that we have no therapy or vaccine for.”

In Australia, the interaction between polymers and virus membranes is a new research area that Boase believes will be beneficial in other medicine and drug delivery, as well as therapeutics and testing. 

In addition to looking at how polymers can deactivate emerging viruses, the QuT team will also have a background focus around inflammation and immune response to viral infections, which will also have a benefit outside of this project directly, Boase said. 

The study, which has been published in Australian Critical Care and holds significant implications for at-risk children, found that 24 per cent of children who were treated with midazolam showed elevated PTSS symptoms during the 12 months following hospital discharge. 

Midazolam is a benzodiazepine used to sedate children when life saving treatments like intubation are required, but the long-term side effects of using the drug in children have not been explored before this study.

The study 

The first longitudinal study on the effects on children receiving midazolam was a collaboration between QUT, UQ and Children’s Health Queensland. Co-led by associate professor Debbie Long from QUT, the study was conducted between 2008 and 2011 and included 265 children from two Queensland hospitals. The children were aged 2-16 years, and parents completed surveys related to their child’s behaviour at intervals of one, three, six and 12 months. 

Long said the study concluded that the children were almost four times more likely to be displaying “elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms after intensive care” if they were exposed to midazolam. While the QUT professor said drug protocols for children admitted to intensive care have changed recently as safer options have become available, midazolam was still widely used. 

The study was therefore critical in raising awareness of the drug’s “potential adverse effects and the need for early intervention”, particularly among at-risk children.

During the study the team of researchers demonstrated that another drug, dexmedetomidine, could be used for up to 14 days for sedation and did not have the amnesiac effects of midazolam. However, Long stated that midazolam could not be completely replaced.

“One of the benefits of dexmedetomidine is that we can reach the desired levels of sedation quickly and safely and have more awake sedation, allowing children to be calm and comfortable,” Long said.

“But there are some illnesses and injuries, such as seizures, for which midazolam is still considered the first line therapy so it is unlikely that the drug will be completely removed from our treatment armoury.”

Each year more than 10,000 children are treated in intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand because of trauma, critical illness or requiring life support. The bulk of children admitted to intensive care are under five years of age, Long states, with roughly 50 per of those under the age of two. 

“It was thought that giving a child midazolam would help them forget being in intensive care. But unfortunately, we think it distorts their memory making process,” she said.

“It’s possible they construct nonfactual memories and that, combined with drug withdrawal-related delirium, could lead to posttraumatic stress in the acute recovery phase.

“We’re starting to wonder if early posttraumatic stress is a gateway disorder to anxiety and depression even if it resolves, because health conditions like these are doubling as more children survive intensive care.

“If symptoms are not identified and managed early, the ripple effect could be life-long – affecting relationships at home, school or when getting a job in later years.”

The QUT professor said the symptoms were significant in the first month after treatment involving midazolam, but could continue for 10-12 months before resolving, and that some children still had elevated symptoms at 12 months.

“Our concern is that families with children who experience posttraumatic stress won’t engage in ongoing care because they’re too traumatised,” she said.

“Identification of the early distress allows medical professionals to engage families sooner and monitor children more closely.”

While this study explored the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms in children and intensive care treatment, Long said "non-treatment factors" such as distressed parents during the child's admission phase, and "pre-existing internalising child behaviours also predicted ongoing distress after hospital discharge".

Building on this study, Long will co-lead an interventional study to investigate psychosocial support for both children and parents, and, importantly, "ways to normalise the hospital treatment process to reduce the incidence of posttraumatic stress".

There has also been cause to reconsider how universities are set for the medium term regarding what they stand for, their reputation and how they look after their people.

University brand positions have varied, in some regards, yet they have still had much in common within competitor groups. Even more broadly, most claim to be changing lives, shaping futures, pursuing excellence, serving the community, and being job-ready. Each ranking that comes out appears to lead to 39 claims of being in the top five for this, or the top 2 per cent for that. We are all the best in the state for one thing, or the best in Australia for another.

But is the net effect that, largely, we all look the same?

There has been similar commonality in portraying brand through student experiences, with much imagery of cosmopolitan and vibrant campuses full of social interaction. Other enduring images of pre-2020 campaigns were universities offering degrees that gave passports to the world, and experiences and jobs in London, Singapore, New York or Dubai. The hero shots and videos, of graduates and students, knocking on the doors of executives, in google-like workplaces around the globe, will be difficult to authenticate for a while.

The last 18 months have softened our assertions of both purpose and student opportunity in the higher education sector. Our ability to deliver experiences that match the brand has been taken away from us. The claim that you can come to University X and make a better future for the planet, or go to University Y and travel to San Francisco on exchange, are all harder to substantiate in a global pandemic.

Promoting an invitation to be in the physical presence of the nation’s best teachers, on shiny new campuses, networking with equally enthusiastic fellow students from all over the world, is likely to do more harm than good when yet another semester of study looks likely to be confined to a largely unsatisfactory online experience. The calls to forthcoming open days will be interesting to watch as brands get reasserted and restated for 2022.

Strategies of universities appear to be difficult to budge, too. The dominant sentiment for leaders, staff and students remains survival over re-invention. There are gestures to increase localised industry and community engagement here, and changes of emphasis in the extent and form of online, blended and hybrid delivery there. The herd instinct means that just about everyone is attempting to offer industry experience and employability to just about every student. But despite enduring changes to revenue streams, and repeated calls from all corners for new business models, they remain largely unchanged.

Indeed, as some vice-chancellors observe, the ubiquitous Australian university business model is largely a function of the funding and registration models that all are required to operate under. With our 40^th university now approved, after satisfying the requirement to operate largely the same as the existing 39, this appears unlikely to change anytime soon.

However, what does vary is what it feels like to work, study at, or partner at each university. The people all come from similar paths into university careers as academic or professional staff. But the extent to which there are different strategies and brands, and the impact their leaders make, do create distinct values, expectations and cultures among their people.

In other sectors, the most successful businesses are based on a model where brand, strategy and culture align. The most successful tech companies, that blossomed through the last 18 months, have clear and often differentiated strategies, around which great brand reputations have been built. But their staff, customers and shareholders see no enduring benefit from those brands and strategies unless their experiences match expectations those brands and strategies have created. And those experiences are entirely down to culture.

One of the most distinct brand strategies of an Australian university is widely perceived to be the 'University for the Real World' positioning of QUT. Its founding vice-chancellor, Denis Gibson, presided over the launch of that brand soon after QUT was formed in 1989. It followed being named University of the Year and was a response to a competitor’s claim, in a local media campaign, to be the real university. Denis talked about the origin of that brand strategy in one of the very first HEDx podcast episodes accessible here.

Peter Coaldrake as VC ran with, and further evolved that brand strategy, with much success for nearly 15 years. Now, 32 years after it was launched, the brand strategy is being restated and reasserted with a new promotion campaign that has just gone to air.  You can see how the brand is being re-interpreted for current times here.

Margaret Sheil as QUT’s third VC, outlined in last week’s HEDx podcast, how the concept of a ‘real world’ university is being reinterpreted for the very different real world in which we currently live. She explains how it underpins her push to integrate research with teaching and learning programs, and with engaging end-users, philanthropic support and investors in commercialisation. She explains how it has guided the organisational change QUT is working through, as its response to the financial hit from revenue lost through the pandemic.

This is commendable as an evolving and enduring brand strategy. But Margaret herself acknowledges the undoubted importance, and challenge, of aligning her people and the culture with that way of setting expectations for staff, students and partners. The experiences all will have of that, or any other university, comes ultimately down to culture. 

Culture is created by the actions and impact of leaders, and by other evidence-based attempts we might make to shape it. And it is the area where HEDx has great experience from other sectors, and from universities around the world, in interventions that are changing higher education for good.

Martin Betts is emeritus professor at Griffith University and founder of HEDx.

This episode has Margaret Sheil joining the HEDx team to outline where QUT is up to in refreshing its blueprint strategy. As the university with the most well-known brand position in Australia, promoting that in a post-COVID era is a priority for Margaret as VC.

She outlines where the significant organisational change is up to and how the focus now is on rebuilding the culture at QUT to allow the strategy to be delivered, and her concern for staff in adapting to change.

The episode illustrates the importance of alignment of brand and strategy. And it demonstrates clearly the critically important place of culture shaping, alongside leadership development, in allowing a brand and strategy to be delivered and experienced.